Fistful of Talent

Is Google+ ready to be our sourcing darling?

I was so excited when Google+ joined our social sourcing world in 2011. You probably know if you read this way back then. I’ve circled, I’ve “hung out,” I’ve created training, I’ve traded gmails and made sure I logged onto lists like this and sources like FindPeopleOnPlus.com. I still feel green every time I run a search on the site and look to a variety of pro’s like this gal… just to see what she’s doing now on the site.

Google likes to boast more than 540 million users of G+ and I like to hear it. Digging into the site will test you. If you’re used to diving into sites with basic required data get ready… G+ requires you to stay a bit more on your toes, trying job titles, and key words, multiple cities within a metropolitan area, employers by names and acronyms. You can be simplistic or verbose in your efforts to find the people you’re searching for. You can use internal search or the site:command to maximize your efforts. And pretty soon, you may be able to contact everyone via their gmail according to the news released last week. And… even better… you can email people for free. No fee, not a dollar. At least not yet.

It’s still not super fast, generating an easy-to-navigate list of results so the calls and emails can begin. But the potential could be there. It could. So, I’m really committing to G+ this year with searches like this:

One hire would make me happy. 10 hires will put me over the moon. It’s going to take a lot of practice and a huge amount of finesse, but I think it can be done. And while I’m searching, I’m also going to be touting it to all of my potential candidates as a great place to store their online professional presence. It’s like any social media site that has sourcing potential—for every 100 recruiters there, we all need to bring 20 non-recruiting types to the party to build it into a viable resource. That’s not a lot—it’s a hat trick for most. You ready to join me in making sure 2014 is the year Google+ becomes our sourcing darling? C’mon… it’ll be fun!